mac

Apple includes a number of screensavers in OS X that provide you with options to exercise your display and prevent LCD ghosting, CRT burn-in (if you still use a CRT monitor), or other persistent images from being a nuisance. As with most screen savers, you can deactivate them by moving your mouse or pressing a button on your keyboard; however, this may not always be the case, and depending on the screensaver being used you may instead find the screensaver will persist even when some inputs are pressed.

Advance photos in slideshows Apple includes a number of slideshow screensavers that … Read more

Earlier this month Sumitomo Electric Industries was the first company to receive Thunderbolt certification from Intel, allowing it to start mass production of optical Thunderbolt cables.

Thunderbolt is a high-speed communications technology that Apple has used in its latest Mac systems to offer fast data transfer, not to mention new ways to expand Mac systems. While quite fast at 20Gbps (10Gbps bidirectional throughput), the sheer speed of the technology has posed a challenge.

When digital devices communicate, signal quality degrades over increased distance, whether via a wired or wireless connection. This can lead to data packets being lost and retransmitted, … Read more

Avidemux for Mac is a video editing and encoding app. It is not available from the App Store but is on many download sites. Avidemux for Mac installs easily.

At its core, Avidemux for Mac is designed to allow you to cut a larger video into a smaller one, although this is not a full-featured video editor. Avidemux for Mac also provides encoding capabilities, converting videos from one codec to another. Avidemux for Mac can also act as a filter, applying specific filter effects to a video clip (although the filter effects are somewhat limited compared to much more expansive … Read more

CleanMyMac is designed to remove old and unnecessary files from your hard drive, as well as optimize system performance. A trial version of the program is available for download, and the full version is available with either a six-month license for $7.47 or a lifetime license for $14.97.

CleanMyMac performs two different tasks that help your Mac computer run better. The first task it tackles is getting rid of orphan and unnecessary files, including cache files. CleanMyMac searches your hard drive and makes recommendations of files that can be deleted, including files for multiple Mac architectures and localization … Read more

App Cleaner for Mac is a simple application that uninstalls applications and all associated files. It is available from many download sites, although not from the App Store, and it installs easily. App Cleaner for Mac is a free download.

While most apps will uninstall from a Mac without a problem, there are a few apps that will not, and that leave orphan files or folders hanging around chewing up disk space. App Cleaner for Mac is a simple way to get rid of these applications and files. To use App Cleaner for Mac, you simply drag an app icon … Read more

ClamXav for Mac is an open-source virus checker. Available from the App Store and many download locations, ClamXav for Mac installs quickly. The app is free, but donations through Paypal are requested.

ClamXav for Mac has a simple interface that displays a set of basic scan options and a larger window to show infected or suspect files. With updated definitions downloaded automatically, ClamXav for Mac can monitor your Mac in real-time, or you can install and run it on an existing system. To scan specific files or folders, simply drag them onto the ClamXav for Mac icon (handy for USB … Read more

iTunes 11 is the latest version of Apple's music player and management software, but if you have upgraded your iTunes installation to this latest version you may find that some of the statistics regarding your library are not being updated.

Whenever you play a song in iTunes, the program keeps track of the number of times the song has completed playing, how many times it is skipped, and when these events occurred. This information is stored in the library and used to help determine how to build automatic playlists from the songs you prefer, among other functions.

After upgrading … Read more

When you think of a typical Mac user, you may imagine a young Silicon Valley go-getter type with hipster glasses and a tongue-tying Starbucks order involving half-caff, soy milk, and foam. According to an unscientific composite created by app maker BlueStacks, you'd be way off base.

BlueStacks compiled data from Nielsen and 1.1 million Facebook fans to determine what the typical Mac lover looks like. It turns out that Ms. Mac 2012 is a freckled, T-shirt wearing lady with long, black hair.

Ms. Mac also happens to be from North America. She's under 20, has OS X Lion installed on her Mac, wears jeans, and rocks a pair of sneakers. There are no geek hoodies to be found anywhere on the infographic, though.… Read more

One of the first MacBook Air rumors of the season alludes to internal changes but few external tweaks.

A fresh report from the not-always-reliable Taipei-based Digitimes claims the "industrial design will not see any major changes" in 2013.

Apple introduced the accentuated wedge aesthetic in late 2010 (see photo above), so about a year and a half will have transpired if new MBAs are introduced in the first half of 2013.

The report makes no mention of displays, but that's an area of intense focus for Apple. The high end of the MacBook Pro line now sports … Read more